The Influence of Building Materials on Relative Humidity of Internal Microclimate

Abstract

Sustainable building covers wide range of criteria including environmental, social and economy issues. Relative humidity of the internal environment belongs to the group of social criteria dealing with the quality of indoor microclimate and is one of the important indicators. Low humidity level can cause dry skin, throats and nasal passages and can cause annoying static electric sparks. High humidity level can lead to growth of moulds and bacteria and can cause condensation problems on the cold surfaces. Appropriate level of relative humidity can be operate by building service systems which increases operating energy in buildings and is sensitive to correct set up, control and monitoring. Relative humidity can be also influenced by the choice of building structures and structural materials without any operating energy. The paper summarizes latest research on the influence of relative humidity on health hazards and influence of building structures and structural materials on the relative humidity.

The Influence of Clay Structures to the Hygrothermal Component of the Indoor Environment

“…The aim of the research was to describe the influence of the dynamic sorption properties of clay materials on the relative humidity of the indoor environment when the relative humidity changes. A medium-dimensional dynamic sorption test for building structures, developed by Diviš, Růžička (2016) [ 40 ], was used.…”

“…The aim of this research was to focus specifically on building structures and to investigate the moisture response of the indoor environment on the sorption properties of building structures during a step change in relative humidity in the interior. For the experimental verification of sorption properties, the methodology developed at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague was chosen [ 39 ]. The main idea of this applied dynamic sorption test is to simulate real situations in the building and the behaviour of real building structures under real-world conditions.…”